November 14: Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland will open the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on November 20, and Singaporean director Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers will close it on November 28, the organisers announced at the festival’s curtain raiser on Friday. The Hindi film Dhurandhar and the Ladakhi-language non-feature film Becoming will open the Indian Panorama section, and India’s Ramayana will open a new focus on cinema from BRICS countries.
Key highlights
- Dates and theme: November 20–28, 2026, in Goa, under the theme “Stories Without Borders”.
- Scale: more than 150 international films from 86 countries, chosen from over 1,900 submissions from 137 countries.
- Opening, mid-fest and closing films: Fatherland, I Matter and We Are All Strangers.
- Indian Panorama: 76 films in 18 languages, opening with Dhurandhar and Becoming.
- Country of Honour: Spain. Partner Country: Russia.
- New this year: an Animation section and a Films About Films section, five films each.
The headline films
| Slot | Film | Director | What the organisers say |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening film | Fatherland | Paweł Pawlikowski | Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika travel through divided post-war Germany in 1949; Best Director at Cannes 2026 |
| Mid-fest film | I Matter | Alina Șerban | 101 minutes; Romania, Germany and Belgium; in Romanian and Romani |
| Closing film | We Are All Strangers | Anthony Chen | Singapore |
| Indian Panorama opener (feature) | Dhurandhar | Not named in the release | Hindi feature film |
| Indian Panorama opener (non-feature) | Becoming | Not named in the release | Ladakhi-language non-feature film |
| BRICS segment opener | Ramayana | Nitesh Tiwari | Films from all 11 BRICS member countries in the segment |
Indian cinema at IFFI
The Indian Panorama received 404 feature-film and 358 non-feature submissions, and 46 eligible entries for the Best Web Series (OTT) award. The feature-film jury is chaired by Madhur Bhandarkar and the non-feature jury by Himanshu Shekhar Khatua.
The festival will also mark the birth centenaries of filmmakers Shakti Samanta and Raj Khosla, actors Uttam Kumar, Suryakant Mandhare, Prem Nazir and Raj Kumar, and music composers O.P. Nayyar and Ravi.
World cinema
Spain, the Country of Honour, brings four films, including Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas and Jaime Lorente’s The Bad Son. Russia, the Partner Country, also brings four, including Anastasia Kuzina’s Bo Bo. Seven films compete for the Best Debut Feature award, including India’s The Sledge and Birds on Ice and China’s Atlantic. A centenary tribute to the Polish director Andrzej Wajda will show five of his films, and five more films feature in Restored Classics.
The festival will feature 52 women filmmakers and 62 debut filmmakers. Fourteen masterclasses, panels and conversations will be held at the Kala Academy from November 21 to 27.
For the industry
The WAVES Film Bazaar will host 150 invited guests, including buyers and production houses, with a Screenwriters’ Lab, Co-production Market and Work-in-Progress Lab. Netflix is its Knowledge Series partner and will hold the gala premiere of Pushpak Viman. The sixth edition of Creative Minds of Tomorrow will bring together 100 young participants across 13 filmmaking crafts.
Our calculation
| Question | Answer | How we got it |
|---|---|---|
| How selective is the international line-up? | Fewer than 1 in 12 entries | About 150 films from over 1,900 submissions |
| How selective is the Indian Panorama? | About 1 in 10 | 76 films from 762 feature and non-feature submissions |
| How many festival days? | 9 | November 20 to 28 |
| Days to opening night from the curtain raiser | 7 | November 13 to 20 |
What it means for India and Asia
The line-up puts Asia at both ends of the festival. The closing film comes from Singapore’s Anthony Chen, and it is also one of this year’s leading contenders at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, which are presented on November 22, in the middle of IFFI. With Ramayana opening the BRICS segment and China’s Atlantic in the debut competition, the programme gives Asian and Global South cinema a bigger place alongside the European titles that open the festival.
What to watch
- Opening night on November 20 with Fatherland.
- The awards, including Best Debut Feature, at the closing ceremony on November 28.
- Deals announced at the WAVES Film Bazaar.
The INOX multiplex in Panaji, one of the IFFI screening venues (file photo). Image: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons. Photo source · Licence
Sources
- PIB (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting): IFFI 2026 curtain raiser
- International Film Festival of India: official website
- Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival: 63rd Golden Horse Awards nominees
The Entertainment Desk covers cinema from India, Asia and Hollywood: releases, box office, awards and festivals, reported from official announcements. Stories are checked against at least two credible sources before publication.
